Dr. Makholm specializes in the economics of regulated infrastructure industries in the energy (electricity, gas, and petroleum products), transportation (pipelines, railroads, and airports), water, and telecommunications sectors. He has directed projects on competition, pricing, financing, privatization, and industrial development for many utilities and other infrastructure businesses in the US and more than 20 other countries. Dr Makholm was commended in Who's Who Legal Arbitration Expert Witness Guide 2016 for his appearances as an expert witness in LCIA and ICSID cases. Dr. Makholm has also provided expert testimony and reports on over 150 occasions for electricity companies, gas distributors, gas and oil pipeline companies, or regulatory bodies involved in administrative, civil, and international arbitration cases concerning competition and market power, tariff design, financing, and cost of capital.
In the US, Dr. Makholm has directed cases regarding tariffs, cost of capital, regulation, planning, competition, and restructuring for regulated businesses in many state and federal regulatory jurisdictions. Beyond the US, he has assisted regulated industries, governments, and the World Bank with regulatory laws, proposed financing plans, and the pre-privatization restructuring of regulated businesses.
Dr. Makholm holds a PhD and MA in economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison (major field of industrial organization and minor field of econometrics/public economics; dissertation titled "Sources of Total Factor Productivity in the Electric Utility Industry"), as well as an MA and BA in economics from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.